1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refueling control valve for controlling a quantity of oil (fuel) in refueling a fuel tank for vehicles, ships, etc. Additionally, the present invention relates to a fuel tank device having the refueling control valve.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Publication (kokai) No. 09-105364 shows a fuel tank of this kind. In this fuel tank, a tank body has a main tank part, a sub-tank part and a swelling part arranged between the main tank part and the sub-tank part to project upwardly. In connection with the arrangement of seat cushions for an automotive rear seat, the tank body is formed so that the main tank and the sub-tank have respective upper faces both lowered in comparison with the upper face of the swelling part.
Due to the structure where the surface of fuel in full charge is separated by the swelling part, this fuel tank cannot provide a space above the fuel surface with a height enough to arrange the earlier ventilation-side floating valve for controlling the refueling operation. That is, the fuel tank constructed above has a problem of impossibility to arrange the above floating valve just above the fuel surface when the tank is under its full-refueled condition.
Under the above circumstance, it is an object of the present invention to provide a refueling control valve which is capable of increasing the degree of freedom in arranging the refueling control valve in the tank body. According to the invention, the above-mentioned object is accomplished by a refueling control valve for a fuel tank, comprising:
a casing having a tube-shaped portion, a flange formed on an outer periphery of the tube-shaped portion for attaching to the fuel tank, a communication port positioned in an upper part of the casing and a connection port connected to the communication port; and
a float movably accommodated in the tube-shaped portion to close or open the communication port,
wherein the tube-shaped portion has, at a lower end thereof, an open port opening at a fuel surface of the full-refueled fuel tank, and, at a lower part, a bent portion connecting the open port with the communication port, the bent portion being bent so as not to cause stagnation of liquid passing therethrough.
Note, the above refueling control valve of the invention is identical to the ventilation-side floating valve.
With the above-mentioned structure, since the tube-shaped portion has a bent portion, there is no need to establish a position for detecting the fuel surface of the full-refueled fuel tank just below the float. Therefore, it is possible to increase the degree of freedom in arranging the ventilation-side floating valve in the tank body, accomplishing to control the refueling operation against the tank body in spite of its complicated structure.